SRINAGAR: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday trapped and arrested a forester and an official from the Forest Range office in Watergam, Baramulla, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 12,500 for processing and issuing a Transit Permit.
“The Anti-Corruption Bureau received a complaint from a resident of Rafiabad District, Baramulla, alleging that he is engaged in the timber business and had recently sold approximately 375 Cft of timber to a customer in Srinagar. To transport the timber from Baramulla to Srinagar, he needed a transit permit from the Range Office in Watergam, Baramulla. Accordingly, he submitted four applications online under the National Transit Pass System (NTPS),” reads a statement.
The statement further indicates that when he visited the Range Office in Watergam, he was issued only one transit permit for the transportation of timber. “However, the concerned forester, Mansoor Ahmad, demanded a bribe of Rs 3,500 for the issued permit and informed him that he would need to pay more for the other three pending permissions.”
“In light of these circumstances, the complainant approached the Anti-Corruption Bureau with a written complaint and requested legal action against the officers of the Forest Range Office in Watergam for demanding a bribe for processing and issuing the transit permit,” the statement reads.
“After receiving the complaint, the allegations were discreetly verified, revealing that the forester, in collusion with other officials of the Range Office in Watergam, was demanding a bribe of Rs 3,500 from the complainant for one transit permit already issued and was also demanding a bribe for processing and issuing Transit Permits for the other three pending applications of the complainant,” it adds.
Following the verification of the complaint, a case FIR No. 01/2024 U/S 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 (as amended in 2018) & section 120-B IPC was registered at PS ACB Baramulla against the accused public servant Mansoor Ahmad and other officials of the Range Office in Watergam, and an investigation was initiated.
“During the investigation, a trap team was formed, which successfully caught the accused public servant Mansoor Ahmad and another official from the Range office in Watergam red-handed while demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 12,500 from the complainant. Both accused public servants were arrested on the spot after completing all legal formalities, and the bribe money was also recovered from them. The involvement of other officials in the bribery case is also under investigation,” it concludes, adding that further investigation in the case is ongoing—(KNO)
